Police Need a Standard, Reliable Test for Marijuana DUI

August 08, 2017
By
Novus Medical Detox Center

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As the legalization of marijuana spreads across the country, the dangers
of driving under its influence (DUI) have become a very real problem.
The situation has courts and traffic cops scratching their heads. Unlike
the ubiquitous alcohol breathalyzer, standard equipment in almost every
cop car in America, science has yet to come up with a reliable way to
test for marijuana impairment. For alcohol, the breathalyzer and blood
tests estimate how much alcohol might be affecting a driver's brain.
Scientific testing has established standards for impairment that are accepted
everywhere in the world. For marijuana, a blood test can detect
some of marijuana's components. But how much marijuana is too much to drive?
Nobody knows for sure. Not yet, anyway. Says a recent NPR report: "There's
no accepted, standard amount in the breath or blood that gives police
or courts or anyone else a good sense of who is impaired." For marijuana,
it's a whole new scientific ball game.

There's no doubt that marijuana does impair

Marijuana proponents frequently preach that the drug doesn't affect
driving the way alcohol does. Marijuana apologists and legalization activists
"cherry pick" from scientific tests that make driving while
stoned "probably" safe or "safer than alcohol." That
message is demonstrably dangerous because too many people believe it -
especially younger people. Someone should ask these marijuana-is-safe
people if they'd like to get a heart transplant or brain surgery from
a surgeon who smoked marijuana right before the operation. The facts are
that marijuana
does impair judgment, motor coordination, and reaction time, and significantly
so. A whole slew of scientific tests clearly demonstrate "a direct
relationship between blood THC concentration and impaired driving ability,"
says the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). "And marijuana
is the illicit drug most frequently found in the blood of drivers who
have been involved in vehicle crashes, including fatal ones." Here's
some convincing evidence from NIDA, with an explanation why it's causing
such headaches for the cops and the courts: "Two large European studies
found that drivers with THC in their blood were roughly twice as likely
to be culpable for a fatal crash than drivers who had not used drugs or
alcohol. But the role played by marijuana in crashes is often unclear
because it can be detected in body fluids for days or even weeks after
intoxication and because people frequently combine it with alcohol. "Those
involved in vehicle crashes with THC in their blood, particularly higher
levels, are three to seven times more likely to be responsible for the
incident than drivers who had not used drugs or alcohol. The risk associated
with marijuana in combination with alcohol appears to be greater than
that for either drug by itself."

Is the problem solvable?

So the major problem is twofold: a) marijuana can remain detectable in
the blood stream for weeks; and b) what negative effects it may be having
is, so far, impossible to gauge. Here's a good example: In one study,
researchers had 30 frequent marijuana smokers stay at a research facility
for a month with no access to any drugs. Their blood was frequently tested
for evidence of cannabis. "And it shocked everyone, including ourselves,
that we could measure, in some of these individuals, THC in the blood
for 30 days," said a former NIDA scientist who was the study's
toxicologist. Even though they had abstained from marijuana for a full
month, stores of THC continued to "leech out." In some heavier
marijuana smokers, blood THC remained above the 5-nanogram level (a very
high level) for several days after they had stopped smoking. To confuse
things, another study found that occasional users could smoke a joint
and show no evidence of cannabis in their blood at all.

Where will it all lead?

Obviously, current marijuana blood testing technology is less than useful.
But a few scientists are working on tests and standards that might eventually
help traffic courts, and cops at the roadside, upgrade to something more
useful than observing vague behavioral indicators. In an article about
marijuana impairment, TIME magazine recently said a national roadside
survey of weekend nighttime drivers found 8.3 percent had some alcohol
in their system while 12.6 percent tested positive for THC. And the THC
levels were up from 8.6 percent in 2007. It's illegal in all states
to drive under the influence of anything, TIME points out. But establishing
the .08 breath alcohol limit in most states took years of work to come
up with. The question is whether we can establish a similar threshold
for marijuana in a reasonable time - before more accidents happen. It's
a big question, a big problem, and it's only going to get bigger until
the scientists sort it out. Meanwhile, here at Novus, we continue helping
those with drug and alcohol problems get their lives back. Our message
to everyone is to avoid all psychoactive substances whenever and wherever
possible - especially when performing tasks that require good judgment
and coordination like driving.

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